Just a few days before the primary election, Lisa Murkowski initiated a negative campaign against Joe Miller due to poll results that revealed she was going to lose the primary election. She has conducted a negative campaign ever since, primarily because she can not run on her record; a record that was the reason she lost the primary election in the first place. As a result, she is attempting to demoralize those who support Joe Miller by destroying his character and integrity, and that of his family as well as his extended family, including the many tens of thousands Alaskans who support him.The Murkowski campaign is aided and abetted in the assault to demoralize the Miller camp by powerful forces from both within the state and from Outside. These forces are keen to continue the status quo of Big Government as personified by Sen. Murkowski.They are the I Want Mine people who have been getting theirs for decades, andwho fear what might happen to their businesses, corporations and unions if their I’ll Get Yours For You senator is no longer there (in Washington) to Get It For Them.They will, most likely, be the first in line if and when the unthinkable occurs and the 13.5 trillion, or up to 20 trillion, dollar debt suddenly comes due. At that point, Lisa will not be able to help them any more.Joe Miller has made it strikingly clear that the nation’s current course of Us Getting Ours is unsustainable. Many Alaskans cannot adequately comprehend that America is 13.5 trillion dollars in debt and has 130 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities (promises to pay in the future). As a result, the mindsets of those who Want Theirs are allowed to rationalize the problem as though it is one of relative insignificance, and since the rest of America Got Theirs they believe Alaskans Should Get Theirs too.If the national debt was as easily comprehended, as is a diagnosis of cancer, Alaskans might better understand the potentially fatal consequences that are associated with a 13.5 trillion dollar debt. Look at it like this:When a physician informs a patient that he or she has cancer, one of the first question now a days is how bad is it? Is it treatable? A 13 trillion dollar debt is treatable, but a spoonful of sugar won’t help to make the medicine any easier to take. On the other hand, under Sen. Murkowski the debt will certainly grow to the point where the only treatment available will be palliative care, or life support. Imagine that; America on life support.Not very many people walk out of the doctor’s office after a diagnosis of cancer suggesting the doctor is nuts, although a few may refuse treatment for a variety of reasons other than denial. Most of us would want to hear something to the effect, “if you have to have a cancer, this one is a good one to have” because it often responds really well to treatment.Well folks, right now the 13.5 trillion dollar debt is in the category of a good debt to have if you have to have a debt. Joe Miller is promising to help lead us out of this debt, while Lisa Murkowski and those who support her are attacking Mr. Miller’s character and integrity in an effort to deny that 13 trillion dollars of debt is a serious problem, or to avoid discussing the issue by making it a non-issue, and even suggesting that it may be acceptable to increase the debt. They are intent on sending an individual who has been part of the problem back to Washington, to potentially cause the debt to metastasize, rather than to send Mr. Miller who wants to get a handle on the problem. Joe Miller and his supporters suggest, “if you want to change Washington, you have to change the people you send to Washington.” Miller and his supporters want to address the problem, while Mrs. Murkowski is openly offering the status quo, or to make it worse.The Republican Candidate for senate’s character and honor has been the focus of numerous attacks from the Murkowki camp for more than a month, aided by a complicit media allied with the liberal political machine, as well as a significant number of establishment republicans. No recipient of a relentless attack of this magnitude can be expected to be unfazed by it and to completely resist becoming dispirited because of it; not Joe Miller, not his family, and in particular, not his supporters who elected him to compete against the Democrat Party candidate on the issues.If this was a domestic relationship rather than a political contest, the Murkowski camp would be a candidate for a restraining order rather than a candidate for the senate; and the plaintiff would not be Mr. Miller. The plaintiff would be the citizens of Alaska who selected Joe Miller as the Republican Candidate for the US Senate, effectively filing for divorce from Mrs. Murkowski.The senator is contesting the divorce, and she has powerful allies who have a multitude of reasons, most of them economic, to help her stay in power and in control.As is the case with most domestic disputes, Mrs. Murkowski did not seek reconciliation. She has set out on a mission to destroy, first and foremost the man who is carrying the banner for the party with which she was once associated, and by extension, those who cast their votes to support him. She, like any other abuser, does not care who is hurt (children are often their victims.) Retaining power and the ability to control others is the only important thing to the abuser, and Mrs. Murkowski is demonstrating classical behaviors associated with a threat to an abusive person’s power and control.Mrs. Murkowski is a good example why domestic abuse is a severe problem in Alaska. While it is widely reported in the lower economic classes, it is well hidden when it occurs in the upper economic classes. In a political environment verses a family environment, is it possible that a sitting senator could be as capable of abusing her political family, and getting away with it, as most upper class domestic abusers seem capable of getting away with being abusive. Mrs. Murkowski is angry at her political family, and she is striking out at it with intent to cause as much damage as possible. Her attacks are merciless, and they should not be tolerated as behavior one would expect of a lady, or of a sitting senator.Mrs. Murkowski is abusing us in plain site and not being called for it.Alaskans should be concerned about the abuses directed toward them and the candidate they support. Unfortunately, we will just have to tolerate it, just as so often happens to an abused victim. The victim of abuse inevitably continues to hope against hope in most cases that the abuser will stop; that the abuser will once again be the partner originally thought of as a kind and gentle partner. Please senator, stop. Please.Just like domestic violence is covered up so successfully in the upper classes, the media, the unions and the establishment are not only covering for the senator as she verbally batters the family that was once hers; they are included among the instruments with which the abuse is delivered to the citizens of Alaska. Mrs. Murkowski is angry, and she is not giving up her power and control gracefully, or with any degree of dignity. She is using Alinsky tactics, employing the abusive behavior of Alinsky’s fifth rule: “Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.”Many of us mistakenly believe that domestic abuse is limited to physical abuse. This commonly accepted conclusion however, is far from the truth. The fact is that domestic abuse becomes evident due to physical injuries, yet financial and emotional abuses are widely distributed across all socio-economic classes. These forms of abuse are not as obvious and as a result are not easily detected or reported. They often only come to the attention of authorities and researchers after the abuse has evolved to the level of being physical, a natural progression of many abusive relationships.Unfortunately, the mental damage to an individual who is financially or emotionally abused is as damaging to a person as is a punch or a kick. Emotional and financial abuse is visible to family, to friends and to trained observers, yet in most cases there is nothing that can be done about it, in contrast to cases of physical abuse. The intent of the abuser in virtually every abusive situation is to demoralize and ridicule the victim into submitting to the degree of control and power the abuser desires to hold over the victim, and when emotional and financial abuses are no longer effective, violence or the threat of violence is inevitable.When Mrs. Murkowski called the Republican Party candidate and those who elected him extremists, she fired the first salvo of many in an attempt to demoralize and ridicule those who once were her partners, but had decided to move on in a new relationship. In this context, virtually every statement from the Murkowski campaign can easily be viewed as abusive.The media, in particular the Alaska Dispatch, has been equally or more abusive to the citizens of Alaska. They too seek power, as well as wealth, by abusing us rather than attempting to inform us as was originally intended under the auspices of the press being America’s Fourth Estate; the fourth branch of government responsible for watching over the other three branches, and reporting their activities to the people. A Dispatch article titled “Alaska Dispatch sues for release of Miller's records,” might as well have been written, Richard Koller sues AWAKE for Obama’s records. You can sue any one you want to for almost any reason, but the Dispatch just wanted a headline to print—an abusive headline. They inserted themselves in the story as an pseudo-advocate of the people for the sole purpose of a head line. We all know that our personnel records are some of the most highly guarded documents and extremely difficult to obtain, especially by a fine, upstanding rag like the Alaska Dispatch.Alaska is currently known of as one of the leading states in the nation for domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is often a progressive condition; one that begins with ridicule, disparaging and demoralizing behavior, and all too often ends in severe injury or death. Attempts to protect children from witnessing abuse have been instituted as it has been clearly shown that children are much more than just innocent bystanders in abusive situations; they are victims too.Why should we tolerate abusive behavior in the political environment within the political family any more than we tolerate abusive behavior in the domestic environment? Well, the governor is working on solving the latter problem, and the people of Alaska are responsible for addressing the former. We must not only hold those who are abusive accountable for their behavior, but we must hold each other accountable for making sure that abusive behavior will is not tolerated in the political realm any more than it is in the realm of the family.A restraining order for Mrs. Murkowski, ordering her to campaign on her record and addressing what she can positively offer in service to the state and the country, instead of abusing her political family with Alinsky tactics would be nice. But Mrs. Murkowski is no longer a nice lady. She is a monster, just as the domestic abuser is a monster.The most grievous aspects of the abuses perpetrated on the citizens of Alaska are two-fold. First of all, it is indicative of all that is wrong with society in the 49th state. Just like domestic abuse, Murkowski’s deplorable behavior is only acceptable because we Alaskans enable it by failing to respond appropriately to it. Mrs. Murkowski should be run out of town on a rail, but in our civil society we can do little more than send a message of disappointment, hailed from every village, every town and every city, that “we will not tolerate abusive behavior from our husbands, from our wives or from our politicians.” We the people of Alaska must demand the respect we deserve. We must also give that respect to others as well. First however, we must learn to respect ourselves, and when we do, it will be easier for us to respect others, and expect others to respect us.Secondly, the children of Alaska are witnesses as well as victims of the abuse. As a result, Alaskan adolescents are being taught that it is ok to be abusive. At best, our young Alaskans, who are the future of the state, are being sent conflicting messages that create ambivalence during a time when ambivalence is already an imposing and difficult factor to be sorted out in a period when profound changes are also occurring. There is no excuse for ambivalence when it comes to being abusive, and abusive behavior by the senator should not be allowed to complicate the choices that our children will make.They should not be confused about the choices as to how they will treat their family, their spouses, their political family or their political opponents. These young adults and adolescents spent the better part of their elementary years getting accolades and trophies for participating and playing fair, and suddenly they are witnesses to a sitting senator’s malicious behavior toward her opponent and tens of thousands of Alaskans, as if to say “fair play is for you, my child, but not for me. Do as I say, not as I do, or it is ok to be abusive, as long as you are running for office.”Well, if it is ok to be abusive if you are running for office, how many other situations in life are abusive behaviors acceptable? With you spouse? Your parents? Your grandparents? Your friends? The indigent? The handicapped?None is the correct response. Zero. Being abusive is unacceptable to us, and its demonstration by Senator Murkowski is also unacceptable. It is not only unacceptable;it is also deplorable.Senator Murkowski, consider this as your restraining order. The people of Alaska do not condone or want to risk any imitation of the behavior you have demonstrated over the past few weeks. We expect you to set a better example for the people of Alaska and the nation, and we also expect you to use your significant influence over those who are doing your bidding to cease their abuses as well. It is expected that you will abide by this demand out of not only your own self-respect, but out of respect for the citizens of Alaska as well. In particular and most importantly, it is expected that you will abide by these demands for the children of Alaska. They do deserve better, Senator.-Richard Koller